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Wings Of The Wind: Chapter 1
'Voices in the Dark' Bodies huddled in corners in the darkness as the night crept in, the only light visible emanating from the rushlights that lined the end of the corridors leading down into the owned cells in the Back of House of Tartarus. The fires of the geothermal hotspot below the facility perpetually created a blazing level of heat in the cells. The shouts of panic from the new slaves rang out through the passages echoing incessantly as they called for help. The longer serving slaves stayed silent for they knew that no matter how they shouted, no help would come. A young man lay quietly on the tiny bunk in the kairoseki lined cage he'd lived in for 12 of his 17 years of life. As he sat a whispering voice sounded from the cell next to his. Old Man: Hey Kid! The others say you're owned by Saint Caligula. Young Man: They're right, what's it to you newbie? Old Man: You must have it pretty good, having a Celestial Dragon paying for you. The old man stopped speaking as he heard cold mirthless laughter echoing eerily off the walls. The old man felt a chill run down his spine as the laughter reverberated around him. Young Man: You have no idea what your talking about newbie. The training master gave you his speech today right? 'Most of you will last three fights', right? Old Man: Yeah, so what? Young Man: They fight you most of once a week, so most of you last three weeks. They tell me I've been here 12 years, I've been fighting three times a week for the last 10 years and once a week before that, if I'm not in the arena I fight in the training halls. All to keep me in shape for when Saint Caligula might bother to turn up and watch. So tell me how is it good to have that b*stard paying for me? The old man stayed silent as he imagined the horror of fighting that many times and being stuck here that long. He couldn't imagine how anyone would want to stay alive just to keep doing it. Old Man: Why do you still fight then? Young Man: Why? One day I'm going to find my way out, one day they'll drop their guard or not pay enough attention and then I'll strike. Old Man: Who are you kid? Young Man: I'm Kai De Avalon, last of the Avalon clan of Kung Fu Masters. I can't die, because if I die Avalon Style Kung Fu dies with me. Old Man: If you've been here so long, how do you deal with this heat? Kai: Wrap up in your blanket you sweat for a while, but after a few hours it cools you off enough to sleep. That's what we should be doing now. Get your rest old timer tomorrow is when your training starts. The two laid back quietly once more and drifted off into the land of dreams. The only free place left to them. 'Blood On The Sand' Kai awoke to the sound of his cells door being banged on by one of the many guards. He laid still as the grating sound of metal on metal as the door scraped open. Sergeant of The Guard: You're being summoned to the training halls. Saint Caligula sent a new trainer for you. Kai sat up slowly letting his blanket fall away and pushed himself to his feet. He shook his head as he remembered the number of guards he'd killed just for being the one to come collect him. He knew better these days, the more guards he killed the more alert they were and less alert guards were more vulnerable. Sergeant of The Guard: Hurry up Avalon, I don't have all day. Kai stood up and walked across the cell to where four more armed guards stood waiting for him. He smiled to himself as he saw them, last time they brought six. The four pointed their swords at him as the first guard checked the explosive collar was secure. Kai: What has "my glorious owner" lined up this time? It better be more useful than the last one. An axe user with more openings than a net. The Sergeant of the Guard checked his collar and shackled his hands in kairoseki as normal, before punching him in the stomach without a word. Before turning around on his heel and walking down the passageway. The guards behind Kai jabbed him in the back with their swords making him move forward. Sergeant of The Guard: It's a Cipher Pol agent, he's gonna kick your ass. Fūjin's Mirror isn't gonna help you now. Kai just smiled and said nothing, Fūjin's Mirror had never failed him before and he doubted it would now. His training kept him agile enough to observe an opponents combat techniques as they came to attack him and all it took was one look. One look and Kai could see understand and perfectly mimic any technique. It was both the bane of his existence and his salvation, being both the reason Saint Caligula was so fascinated with him and the reason why he had been able to survive Tartarus. The lead guard took out a baby den den mushi and waited for the other end to be answered. Sergeant of The Guard: Open the door to training hall 3. There was a moment of silence then the door ahead of them opened slowly revealing the spacious, open room that Kai had come to know so well. He could see the scars in the stone left from the day he had been force fed the Devil Fruit which had become one of his greatest strengths. A strength that he'd quickly discovered by the damnable stone that his cuffs were made of. Kai: So what's a Cipher Pol agent when it isn't being Caligula's lackey? The Sergeant of the Guard turned and struck Kai across the face and Kai stumbled to the ground. He'd known the guard would hit him for speaking his "owner's" name without the honorific, but the fall gave him a chance to observe the room as people turned to see what had happened. 20 guards were stationed in the room as well as a tall dark haired man he'd never seen before. He was dressed in a dark suit and was standing impatiently, Kai could instantly tell he was different from the rest. The killing intent in his gaze was practically painful as the unknown man turned his eyes upon the commotion. Kai grinned in spite of the deathly glare, a man who could do that with just a look may show him something interesting after all. Sergeant of The Guard: A Cipher Pol agent is an assassin, so watch carefully brat. Whilst he's beating you you might learn something. The Sergeant of the Guard walked away from Kai crossing the room, giving Kai more time to weight up his prospective instructor. The man was tall and muscular whilst not being heavy set, Kai's experience told him that with that build he would be fast and fairly strong. Kai watched as the Sergeant of the Guard squared up to the suited man. Sergeant of The Guard: Here's Saint Caligula's prized gladiator, get to work! In the blink of a eye the Cipher Pol agent's right hand went from resting at his side to having its index finger deeply embedded in the Sergeant of the Guard's chest. Cipher Pol Agent: Shigan! The guards around the room all braced up shocked by the sudden attack, but it was already too late, the Cipher Pol agent had vanished. The guards pointed their rifles around looking for him. A moment later he appeared before another of the guards and struck him with a blow that sent him into a wall. Cipher Pol Agent: Soru! The closest guard managed to fire off a shot striking the agent in the back, but it merely deflected off like he'd been made of metal. Cipher Pol Agent: Tekkai! The agent vanished again and the guards heard a voice start laughing and looked around to find the source. After a moment they saw it was the slave who had just been brought in. Kai was elated and laughing at the weakness of his captors. Their eyes had seen nothing, whilst he had seen every movement and understood every step of the technique. He looked down at his bound hands before him as one of the guards stepped forwards to silence him. Kai: Shigan! The guard looked down in shock as he realised that the bound slave before him now had both his index fingers buried dead center in his chest penetrating his heart. The last thing he saw as his eyes closed was the grimace on the young slave's face. Guard: Stop him! The three remaining guards who had brought Kai from his cell leveled their rifles at Kai, but Kai saw what was coming and dropped backwards onto the floor. Just as they readied to fire. The Cipher Pol agent appeared just before where Kai had been standing and kicked out at them. Cipher Pol Agent: Rankyaku! Kai watched as a slice made of compressed air flew away from the man's leg and sliced down the three men about to shoot him. Kai threw himself to his feet and tried the running technique he'd seen the Cipher Pol agent use. Kai: Soru! He felt a sudden burst of speed as he dashed across the room with newly found speed, coming to a stop next to the fallen body of the Sergeant of the Guard. Kai quickly searched the dead man's pockets, ignoring the screams of the guards around him as he pulled out the two sets of keys he'd spent years dreaming of getting his hands on, the keys to his cuffs and the emergency key to his explosive collar. Kai *mumbling*: Come on....open up..... He felt a subtle click and the cuffs fell away landing on top of the corpse. His newly freed hand went to work reaching around his collar looking for the slot where the pronged key would fit. After a few moments he felt the key slip into the slot of his collar and he twisted the key. It snapped under the force of his turning half of it staying in the lock. Kai: Damn it! Kai's frustration was only momentary as he knew he couldn't get trapped with such an opportunity now at hand. He stuck his hand into the opening and concentrated trying to grip as much of the broken key as he could. Then in one swift motion he turned the key in the opposite direction of his initial turn. There was a loud clunk then the collar opened and was thrown to the sand. Kai: Your cage won't stop me anymore. I will be free!!